When the movie "Paranormal Activity" first came out, it was a bigtime phenomenon and everyone was telling me I had to watch it, because they knew i loved horror movies and here was a horror movie taking the world by storm. So many people tried to sing the movie's praises, but they all said the exact wrong thing: "it's just like "The Blair Witch Project!" See, I didn't like "The Blair Witch Project," so that wasn't the way to entice me to see this movie. Over time, however, enough people told me that this movie was scary and good and I had to see it, so I decided to watch it, and you know what? it scared the ever loving bejebus out of me. it's rare for a movie to do that, so I admire the movie for that if for nothing else. Several years and seven movies later, the Paranormal Activity series has made its impact on the horror community, and this movie is about that.
Paranormal Activity is about a young couple who have mysterious things happening in their house, so they decide to set up cameras in their bedroom in hopes of capturing something and learning what is going on. Soon they get more than they bargained forms they discover a sinister supernatural presence in their home. They consult an expert on the Paranormal who confirms that there is something malevolent in their home and they have to figure out what it wants and how to get rid of it. Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston play the young couple, and they are better actors than those you find in other found footage films. Their performances really help ground the movie in reality, and since I was rooting for them, I cared even more about what happened to them. It was interesting hearing how they picked the right actors for the film and how they knew right away that Katie and Micah were perfect for their roles.
One thing I learned from this documentary was that the studio originally wanted to buy the film and remake it with professional actors and professional equipment, but the director insisted that the studio first screen the movie as-is for a big group of people and see how well the movie played to an audience, and during the screening people kept walking out so the filmmakers thought the movie was a failure, but near the end of the movie they talked to an usher and found out that people were walking out because they thought the movie was too scary, and when they heard how well the movie had impacted the audience, the studio decided to go ahead and release the movie as it was. This rings true for me, because part of what makes the movie so good is that it really looks like real home movie footage from people who seemed like real people; they could be me and my friends suddenly encountering something supernatural and evil. that's what made it scary to me.
See, the thing that ruined the Blair Witch Project for me wasn't because it wasn't good, it was because I had a friend who watched the movie in theaters, and she came back to her house full of friends and roommates, and she sat in the living room in dim lighting and told us from beginning to end what had gone on in the first movie, like she was telling a ghost story around a campfire, and when I actually got to see the movie itself, nothing could compare to that experience of hearing the story of the movie as if it were a ghost story. With Paranormal Activity, I didn't know anything going into the movie because I threatened everyone with death if they spoiled the movie for me, so I was watching it blind, and it hit me even harder than it would have if I had known what was going to happen going into the movie.
Honestly, I didn't like the second movie as well as I liked the first (we'll see how I like it when I view it this time around) but hearing the cast and crew talk about what they experienced while making the movie, trying to recapture the success of the first movie, and trying to capture lightning in a bottle again. I really liked the third movie, and it scared the crap out of me, so I was totally here for learning about what happened during the filming of the movie. I didn't expect that the third movie in the series would be as scary for me, so I walked into it and ran into a wall and faceplanted in terror. the ending scared me so badly that I almost started crying. The fourth movie always felt rushed to me, and I didn't appreciate it as much as I did the other movies in the series. The filmmakers seemed to agree with me that the movie was less than stellar, but it was still interesting to hear how auditions and filmmaking went. I liked hearing about how it played to audiences once it was first released. the film ended up grossing $142.8 million. the good thing about the Paranormal Activity movies is that they can be made cheaply and they gross so much money that even when your movie isn't as successful, it still makes a lot of money.
The fifth movie was better than the fourth (up to this point it was weird how the odd-numbered films in this series were good to me, and the even-numbered films in the series were less good), so I had high expectations for the movie and it would be hard to live up to those expectations for any movie, let alone the fifth in a series, but I did end up enjoying the movie. That sequel didn't make as much as it could have done, and that's because people were sick of the Paranormal Activity movies by this point, so the movie only grossed about $90.2 million, which is a lot, and only seems like a failure when compared with the other movies in the series. The sixth movie in the series was fighting an uphill battle, trying to overcome the fatigue that audiences felt towards the franchise by this point. They decided to make the movie in 3D, and it wasn't as well received as the filmmakers had hoped. One of the writers says that with all the big special effects, the movie was getting away from what made the first movie work, that barebones "this could be real video footage" aspect of the original movie. it was cool seeing how the crew felt like a family after working together for so long, but the 7th movie in the series took the story off in a new direction with different characters and a whole new story. I think this is why the movie works so well, because it didn't retread the same paths as the first 6 movies. This documentaryends the way it began. it begins with a cameraman asking people what scares them, and their responses are interestingto note, and the movie ends with a Cameraman asking the cast and crew the same question, and it'sfun to see how they answer the question. All in all this movie was interesting, and it hyped me up to watch the Paranormal Activity movies. We'll see how that goes.
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